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Nigel Kim Darroch, Baron Darroch of Kew, (; born 30 April 1954) is a former British diplomat. He served as the British Ambassador to the United States between January 2016 and December 2019, and previously as National Security Adviser and UK Permanent Representative to the European Union.
On 10 July 2019, following the leak of in which he had been critical of the Trump presidential administration, he resigned from his position as ambassador in Washington DC. Darroch concluded his post in December 2019 upon retirement from HM Diplomatic Service after a career spanning 40 years of public service.
In 2000, Darroch moved back to policy work as Director of EU Comd, and in 2003 promoted further to be Director-General, Europe. In 2004, he transferred to 10 Downing Street, as Head of the Cabinet Office European Secretariat, where he served as the Prime Minister's principal advisor on European affairs. After three years, Darroch was appointed to replace John Grant in Brussels, as British Permanent Representative to the European Union in 2007 for a four-year term.
On 24 June 2011, it was announced that Darroch would replace Peter Ricketts as National Security Advisor in January 2012, with Jon Cunliffe selected as Darroch's replacement as Permanent Representative to the European Union.
In November 2016, following the US election, a memo by Darroch to Prime Minister Theresa May was leaked in which he said the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, could be influenced by the British government. The following week, Trump Twitter that Nigel Farage should serve as British ambassador to the United States. Downing Street said that there was no vacancy and that the UK had "an excellent ambassador to the US". Darroch was in London the next day for consultations with May that were said to have been long-planned.
On 10 July, Darroch resigned as Ambassador to the United States. He wrote that "the current situation is making it impossible for me to carry out my role as I would like". Previously, Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the election to replace May, had declined to publicly support Darroch. Consensus among political commentators in the UK was that this made Darroch's position untenable. In the House of Commons, both May and the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, praised Darroch's service and deplored that he had to resign under pressure from the United States. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said that it was an ambassador's job to provide "an honest and unvarnished view" of the US administration. Darroch remained in the post until the end of the year.
On 19 September 2021, Darroch became Chairperson of non-partisan, internationalist campaign group, Best for Britain.
He was nominated as a life peer in Theresa May 2019 Resignation Honours List. He was created Baron Darroch of Kew, of St Mawes in the Cornwall on 11 November 2019. He made his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 26 November 2020, with a speech on the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
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